Chapter 12: Bloodshed in the Forest

  The sounds of slaughter all around filled my ears to the brim, the sparks from clashing blades shone like stars in the sky. I took a deep breath, feeling the thrill of killing spreading through my body. When an enemy appeared before me, I pounced forward, his long blade swung towards me, and instinctively I used the triangular step with my feet, dodging to his side. The killing knife in my hand plunged into his ribs, then twisted and pulled out, warm blood splashing onto half of my body. Without paying attention to this person, I lifted my leg and ran towards the next one.

  This guy seemed tough to deal with, only seeing him slightly bow his head and place the knife shield in a cross shape, then waiting for me to come over. Standing three steps in front of him, I stopped advancing, my eyes searching for an opening, damn it, couldn't find one. Circling around him quickly, I suddenly lowered my body and leaned towards him, this guy sneered and held the shield in front of me, his right hand stabbed at my abdomen with a long knife, using the shield to deflect his knife, I continued to lean forward, the opponent's shield was already stuck to my body. My feet swiftly dodged half a step and suddenly approached the opponent's right arm holding the knife, chopping at his wrist, the guy was shocked and withdrew his hand, retreating, his left hand's shield also came crashing over, I spun around like an eel and dove into his arms, burrowing into his chest, my back leaning against his left hand's shield, my left hand's shield pressed down on his knife, glaring at him with gritted teeth, then stabbed at his chest repeatedly.

  After killing two people, I felt a surge of pride. I no longer thought about Li Quanyou's warnings and glanced at his back as he walked away, then I went down to the slope alone.

  In the dark of night, all around me were swaying human shadows. I held my knife and navigated through the crowd, striking down enemy soldiers who were fighting with their own people. As I walked, I glanced around using the faint light from fires, and about 30 yards away, I saw a group of enemy soldiers forming a circular formation. In the center stood an enemy general, standing firmly in place. The Tang army surged forward like a tidal wave towards this circle, but the defending soldiers seemed unusually strong, repelling multiple charges without dispersing their formation. I circled around to observe, and there were less than 200 enemy soldiers, each looking fierce. The surrounding Tang soldiers appeared intimidated, no wonder - after charging over a dozen times, they had left behind hundreds of corpses, and going forward again would only mean certain death.

  The archers on the periphery were anxious but didn't dare to shoot arrows, as they were too close and would definitely hit their own people. At this moment, a small leader from the Tang army came over and scolded the people around him: "You bunch of cowards! They're just that many people, what are you afraid of? Charge with me, all together! I don't believe we can't take them down with just three slashes of our knives."

  The other soldiers saw him go up and followed suit. I quietly observed the reaction of the people in the circle, only to see that the officer inside the circle was not surprised at all, and a low voice gave an order, and the entire circle began to slowly move to the right, while the enemy's knives also moved, the first row chopped, our army held up their shields to block when the second row of enemy soldiers suddenly rushed out with long knives and stabbed quickly, knocking down the people in front of them and raising their knives to chop again, and then the first row behind them rushed out and stabbed quickly.

  The enemy's coordination was so good that I couldn't help but secretly admire them. In just a short while, more than 100 of our soldiers had died, and the little leader was lying on the ground, covered in blood and gasping for air. I rushed forward, shouting loudly: "Halt...!" The remaining men glanced at me, ignoring me as they continued to charge forward.

  I cursed and rushed to the little head, immediately lifting him up, while also shouting "Stop!" loudly. These people saw me like this and stopped in a flurry. I supported the little head and said: "Hand over the troops to me." The little head nodded painfully with his hand pointing at me.

  I called two men to send this little head back to the camp and found a high place to shout: "Don't launch a strong attack, keep the formation unchanged".

  He came to the back of the formation and called out to more than 500 people: "Go gather all the hay around here." Then he stepped forward to the front of the formation and looked at the enemy army. The officer seemed to have seen me, his two cold eyes sizing me up from head to toe, and I felt a chill run down my spine as if he was looking at a dead man. Gnashing my teeth, I also glared at him fiercely, the killing knife in my hand raised and pointing at his face.

  After bringing all the hay, I said: "Light it up and throw it into their enclosure."

  Hundreds of people lit torches and threw out hay, in the blink of an eye the place where the enemy army was standing caught fire. At first, the enemy army tried to put out the thrown hay, but under our rain-like chaotic throwing, they couldn't hold on anymore.

  I quickly ordered everyone to stand still and make way for a path. The enemy soldiers saw that there was a way out and became somewhat disordered. One of the enemy generals waved his sword, and this small circle began to slowly retreat outward. I stared intently at these people, seeing them retreat quickly beyond the circle, and then ordered the archers to fire three consecutive shots. These people were immediately shot down by the chaotic arrows, and the remaining ones shouted together and fled outward in a hurry.

  I coldly shouted: "The enemy's formation has been broken, pursue!"

  The enemy army in front was running desperately, I closely followed the enemy general, there were only a few soldiers left beside him, under our army's pounce and kill, he rushed into a forest.

  The wind was blowing strongly, causing the leaves to rustle loudly. I stopped at the edge of the forest, and the dozen or so people following me looked at me nervously, their eyes fixed on the dark woods behind me. Occasionally, a faint sound came from within the forest, and the endless killing intent made my hair stand on end. I called over a soldier and instructed him: "Gather all the scattered men here, form a triangular formation, and search carefully." After finishing speaking, I led the people behind me into the forest.

  The forest is darker inside than outside. The leaves of the tall trees have blocked out the moonlight, making it pitch black. As I walk deeper into the forest, it gets even darker. I widen my eyes and turn my head to search for any signs left behind by the enemy. Before I can find any traces of the enemy's presence, one of the soldiers behind me speaks up: "Sir... shouldn't we wait for the others to arrive before searching? There are only a dozen or so of us brothers here, and this forest is so big... it's nighttime... if the enemy were to launch a surprise attack..."

  He didn't say another word, but after hearing this, I turned around and looked at them, the whole group of soldiers were pale-faced and staring at me. Looking at these good-for-nothings made me so angry, I said: "You all go outside and stand guard, I'll handle things here myself."

  The soldier said: "Sir, don't chase after him anymore, let's go back together."

  I said to him: "I'm fine, you guys leave and go find the people from my Xuanjia camp right away, tell them to surround this forest." After finishing speaking, I didn't pay attention to that person anymore, and slowly walked towards the depths of the forest by myself.

  Walking alone in this dark forest feels great, so great that I've thought of turning back and running outside several times. I muttered to myself, how could I be like those useless people outside? I'm a soldier from the Xuanjia Camp, a fierce warrior! Fierce warriors aren't afraid of the dark... not afraid of the dark. My slightly trembling hands took out the blowpipe tube that Master Zhu gave me and put it in my mouth to calm myself down. The surroundings were quiet to the point of being terrifying, and I felt like my footsteps sounded as loud as thunder. The sweat on my palms made the knife handle slippery.

  The other side was four people running into the forest. Thinking of the momentum of these people just now, I almost turned around and ran out of the forest again. Suppressing this impulse, I muttered fiercely in my heart: "Let me show you, I'm not a cook, don't think that only cooks can make good food, today I'll let you know that I'm a fierce soldier who can make better food than a cook."

  I walked to a stone about one and a half people high and I didn't dare to walk anymore. I only felt that there were several pairs of eyes staring at me. Not far away, behind a tree, there was something like a cloth strip being blown by the wind, shaking up and down. I looked at it with all my might, and then I picked up a stone and threw it lightly over there.

  The stone fell to the ground with a loud "crack", and that thing also shook slightly, then continued to swing up and down.

  Looking at this good-for-nothing thing my fire was stirred up, I stretched out my hand from the big bag of my husband's partner and took out a bottle of pepper powder towards that tree, then made an effort to throw it over. With a crisp sound, the bottle hit the trunk of the tree and shattered into pieces, and a bottle of pepper powder instantly surrounded the place. Along with a burst of violent coughing sounds, two people came out, one hand covering their mouth and nose, the other holding a knife, covered in the smell of pepper powder, and rushed over.

  My cat-like body hid behind the stone thinking: "These two old things must have fallen asleep"; I crouched behind the stone and stretched out one leg, in an instant a person was tripped in front of me, before he could get up, the knife in my hand flashed into his temple, the man let out a miserable cry and stopped moving.

  The man behind him suddenly stopped and stood still, holding his knife and perking up his ears to listen. I remained motionless, crouching there, my blowpipe aimed at the man's neck, and with one swift breath, I blew it out.

  That small arrow silently pierced the man's neck, and he suddenly convulsed, his entire body shrinking up. Along with his painful groans, the robust man in front of me unexpectedly shriveled into a small ball. Then, a foul odor assailed my nostrils as his bowels and bladder released their contents. Watching this shrinking mass of flesh, the cold sweat on my body soaked through my clothes. I shook my head violently, my trembling hands pulling out the arrow. I didn't dare look again.